The Russian Nomads in Thailand.

I think it’s pretty obvious that I love to travel. I try to go as often as I can, whenever I can, and I’m almost always searching online for my next big adventure. It definitely helps that the man I married also is the perfect travel companion, and we always have so much fun together wherever we go, whatever we are doing. The latest travel adventure landed us in a place that I’ve always dreamt of going: Thailand. I have researched Thailand for years. I tried to convince Arthur that we should teach English there for a year, but that was before we took the job here in Okinawa. However, sometimes researching a place too much has its downfalls. Sure, you know quite a bit about where you are going, but I think it sets you up for disappointment if you’re not careful. As a result of browsing Pinterest for several months years, I began to make Thailand up for a place with few tourists, who would rarely be seen on the perfect, white sandy beaches with crystal clear water. The markets were clean and the air was fresh, and overall, it was pretty safe. Oh man, did my opinion change.

Because it's my job to annoy him.

When flying, always get a cloud picture.

We left Okinawa and headed to Shanghai where we had our first layover. It’s crazy that there can be such a drastic difference between two Asian countries that are so close to each other. The Chinese and Japanese are completely different people and have completely different cultures. I’m very thankful I live in Japan, that’s all I will say.

We didn’t land in Thailand until 01:00 but the airport was still packed and lively. We went through customs, grabbed our bags, exchanged money, and waited outside for our ride from the hotel. Red lanterns hung from the outside of the airport, which to me seemed very fitting and a good welcome into Thailand. It took us about an hour taxi ride from the airport to get to our hotel and the once tired-eyed, sleepy couple woke up quickly as we admired the streets (what we would see in the dark, at least) and tried to prevent a heart attack after experiencing our own version of Tokyo Drift. What we already noted: drivers in Thailand are kind of crazy and it’s a norm to drive in the middle of two lanes for the quick, switch-lane, go around 5 cars, almost hit a truck, kind of action. It was… exhilarating. We checked into our hotel and got ready for bed and passed out quickly. First impression of Thailand: loved it.

The next morning we slept in considering we didn’t get to our hotel until about 03:30. We booked a hotel with a huge, free breakfast buffet. Another thing I love besides traveling: breakfast. Arthur has experienced this now and makes it a point to never buy me a waffle-maker (so sad, right?!). The breakfast had a huge assortment of food, from Pad Thai, to eggs, fresh fruit, mini pancakes, sautéed veggies and so much more. Oh, and cereal… mmmm J. The breakfast was half inside/half outside and overlooked the pool. We were expecting a little different view from our hotel because we didn’t realize how high up it was, but the view we had was still amazing. Our hotel had the perfect view of the sunset each night and overlooked part of Phuket.

Our hotel.



View from our hotel!

Where we spend time getting tan burnt.

Our first day was interesting. We were so excited to get out and go explore the area we were in. We laid by the pool for a couple hours in the morning after breakfast, and then grabbed the hotel shuttle that takes you down to the nearby beach. All the shuttles/taxis typically are tuk-tuks, which are pretty fun but kind of scary..

We brought our swimsuits down in case we wanted to swim in the beach but first, we were in search of a restaurant for lunch. It’s pretty rare for a restaurant to have indoor seating with A/C. Almost all of the restaurants were outside with no A/C, but a couple of fans scattered around. I’ll have you know that it was about 93 degrees each day with high humidity and a heat index of around 105-110. So basically it was weather you could melt in (or your average Okinawan summer). So we would search for an indoor restaurant to try and escape the heat for a bit and for food sanitation reasons (something about food sitting out in really warm weather just doesn’t sound safe…) but we didn’t have much luck. We choose our first restaurant and the food was delicious. This was our experience with the food the rest of our trip… it was amazing! The drinks were pretty great too. Fresh smoothies, fresh juice, coconut water, Thai iced tea, oh they were all so good. After we filled our bellies, we shopped a little bit, and then decided to check out the beach.

FIRST MEAL: Mmmmmm Pad Thai

We walked up to an extremely crowded, semi-dirty, not-as-blue-as-I-pictured, no wave ocean. We said, oh what the heck, and went in search of a restroom to change into our swimsuit. We found one finally that we had to pay to get in, and pay for the toilet paper (like 4 small squares)… It was so dirty and hot inside and such a challenge to put on a bathing suit. Bathing suits finally on, we met back up and we were both already so hot and sweaty. “Want to go back to the hotel?” Yes. Grabbed a tuk-tuk, and headed back and straight to a shower. Normally we are pretty relaxed and okay with intense  humidity but this day we weren't feeling it. We were half baking in the sun/half afraid to leave our bag on the beach with our camera and phones in it so we figured we would just plan better the next day.

Once we showered and cooled off, we walked down a sketchy road and crossed a huge busy street in search of a place for dinner (inside preferably). We walked about 2km and finally found a promising “trip-advisor recommended” place that had indoor seating, score! We walked inside and felt an instant blast of broken air-conditioner that made inside feel at least 10 degrees hotter than outside so we opted for outdoor seating. Had a nice Turkish meal together, stopped at Family Mart on the way back, and headed back to our hotel. The Family Marts in Thailand were great, everything was so much cheaper than in Japan. Drinks were on average 30 cents and snacks were anywhere from 10cents-1 dollar.

Our first day in Thailand was a bit of a culture shock. We definitely weren't really prepared for what we experienced and I think it just took us about a day or so to get over ourselves that. Living in Japan, basically the safest possible place to live and the cleanest place ever, we forgot that every place wasn't so safe or  clean. It doesn't make it a bad place at all, it was just different and we quickly reminded ourselves of that.

Papaya Salad... SO good

 Day two we planned ahead much better and were better prepared. We woke up with another wonderful breakfast and a lounge at the pool. You could rent mopeds from our hotel for about $6.00 a day so we decided that would be a better and cheaper idea than riding taxis. The roads were extremely busy and about 80% of drivers were mopeds. We also found out that about 90% of accidents in Thailand are motorbike accidents.. a little scary but we took our chances. I should note, it took us a little while to get used to driving there, between giant trucks swerving around us, other mopeds right by us, and it probably didn’t help much that I thought I should act as Arthur’s navigation system in his ear… but after a while, we got better (Arthur drove better, I didn’t yell as much), and we ended up renting one almost every day we were there.

This is one the views we rode to that overlooks Kata beach and Karon beach. We also rode past elephants and I almost tried to take one home... I really wanted to ride an elephant or play with baby tigers when we were here, but after reading reviews about how poorly the animals are treated, I couldn't pull myself to get on one. They are just so cute and I don't want to hurt them :( so we just viewed from a distance :)

AWWW ELEPHANT!!

 

I forgot to mention how many RUSSIANS there were in Thailand. Russians and French. It was crazy! I felt like we were in Arthur's mother country...

One of our favorite beaches and the nicest one we found :)

The more we explored the area we were in, as well as rode around on our moped trying to find different beaches, the more I re-fell in the love with Thailand, the real Thailand. Not the one I imagined in my head. Yes, it’s a little rough on the edges and can be scary at times, but it’s so unique and so carefree and so fun. I remember one of the days we took the moped down to the southern point of Phuket to go to another beach we heard of. We swam for a bit, roasted in the sun, ate some good food, and rode back at sunset. The feeling on the way home, with not much traffic around us, the warm breeze blowing past us, and just observing the different parts of Thailand and the different people, it was such a good feeling.

Terrifying..

My view on the back of the moped... At least they drive on the left so we were already used to it.

We tried to do a little of everything in our time there. We definitely spent some time swimming in the ocean and pool, spent some time laying in the sun, shopping at night-markets, trying different food, and meeting different people.

We went to a couple different night markets, which were really interesting to see! They sold so many fake goods like watches, sunglasses, purses, clothes, etc. They also had a ton of street food vendors selling different things from ice cream rolled up in circles, mango sticky rice, corn on the cob, and lots and lots of Thai dishes. They also offered sushi rolls, which was surprisingly very popular. All the sushi was laid out on a table and looked like it had been sitting there for a while but people still were very prone on getting it.

We spent one night visiting the most popular tourist city in Phuket and it was crazy. Not only was traffic terrifying, but we walked through this street lined with bars, strip clubs, and restaurants. You couldn’t walk 5 steps without someone trying to invite you in to their establishment, and “lady-boys” (men dressed up as women REALLY REALLY well) trying to talk to you. We didn’t stay long but it was interesting to see.

Thailand is generally very cheap for many different goods and services, and one of those being massages. I grew up getting free massages through my insurance so I've always loved a good massage, especially a cheap massage. Arthur’s not a big fan of them so being the loving husband he is, he waited outside while I got one. For a half-hour massage it’s only $6.00, can you really turn that down? Plus, with the sunburn I got in the first couple days of laying in the sun, I needed an aloe massage. I wish they had cheap massages in Japan… ahhhh dreaming.

Place where I got my massage... behind the curtain

By the time it was our last day, I was totally in love with Thailand again and didn’t want to leave. We found a less-busy beach with clear blue water so we swam a little bit, relaxed a bit, and ate a bunch. The food in Thailand was all so delicious. We overloaded on smoothies and fresh fruit because in Japan it’s way more expensive so we had to get all we could, not a problem with me J.

The picture above is what I expected most of the beaches to be like in Thailand. The majority weren't this beautiful (hard to beat this..), but they were still nice, just less blue. You just have to drive a little ways to find them.



So that’s that. Thailand was incredible. The company was wonderful (as always). I always love traveling with my husband. And I learned a lesson.. don’t have unrealistic expectations about a place before going. Or try not to have any expectations at all. Just let yourself enjoy the different country and different culture for what it is. You’ll appreciate it a lot sooner.

(I'm already trying to convince Arthur to let us move there hehe.... JK.... or am I?)